Lk. 24:49 π Jn. 15:26 π Acts 1:4; 2nd π Acts 2:33 π Acts 2:38-39 π Acts. 4:31 π Acts 19:2
2) Mistaken conceptions concerning "waiting for the Spirit" to descend. Here again we find expressions and theories misleading, and opening the door to Satanic deceptions. "If we want a Pentecostal manifestation of the Spirit, we must 'tarry' as did the disciples before Pentecost," we have said the one to the other, and we have seized upon the text in Luke 24:49 , and Acts 1:4 (top), and passed the word along. "Yes, we must 'tarry,'" until, compelled by the inroads of the adversary in "waiting meetings," we have had to search the Scriptures once more, to discover that the Old Testament word of "wait on the Lord" so often used in the Psalms, has been strained beyond the New Testament proportion of truth, and exaggerated into a "waiting on God" for the outpouring of the Spirit, which has even gone beyond the "ten days" which preceded Pentecost, into four months, and even four years, and which, to our knowledge, has ended in an influx of deceiving spirits which has rudely awakened some of the waiting souls. The Scriptural truth concerning "waiting for the Spirit" may be summed up as follows:
- The disciples waited ten days, but we have no indication that they "waited" in any passive state, but rather in simple prayer, and supplication, until the fulness of time had come for the fulfilment of the promise of the Father.
- The command to wait, given by the Lord ( Acts 1:4 ) was not carried forward into the Christian dispensation after the Holy Ghost had come, for in no single instance, either in the Acts or in the Epistles, do the Apostles bid the disciples "tarry" for the gift of the Holy Spirit, but they use the word "receive" in every instance. ( Acts 19:2; top )
It is true that at this time the Church is, as a whole, living experimentally on the wrong side of Pentecost, but in dealing with God individually for the reception of the Holy Spirit, this does not put the seekers back to the position of the disciples before the Holy Ghost had been given by the Ascended Lord. The Risen Lord poured forth the stream of the Spirit again and again after the day of Pentecost, but in each instance it was without "tarrying" as the disciples did at the first. (see Acts. 4:31 ) The Holy Spirit, Who proceeds from the Father through the Son to His people, is now among them, waiting to give Himself unceasingly to all who will appropriate, and receive Him. ( Jn. 15:26 ; Acts 2:33 , 38-39; top ) A "waiting for the Spirit" therefore is not in accord with the general tenor of the truth given in the Acts and the Epistles, which show rather the imperative call to the believer to put in his claim, not only to his identification with the Lord Jesus in His death, and union in life with Him in His resurrection, but also to the enduement for witnessing, which came to the disciples on the Day of Pentecost.
On the believer's side, we may say, however, that there is a waiting for God, whilst the Holy Spirit deals with, and prepares, the one who has put in his claim, until he is in the right attitude for the influx of the Holy Spirit into his spirit, but this is different from the "waiting for Him to come," which has opened the door so frequently to Satanic manifestations from the unseen world. The Lord does take the believer at his word when he puts in his claim for his share of the Pentecostal gift, but the "manifestation of the Spirit" - the evidence of His indwelling and outworking - may not be according to any pre-conceptions of the seeker.
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